The WhiteHack Blog

I have previously mentioned that the RHCE exam (RH302) is quite expensive, but I managed to get a rather nice discount, bringing the total cost down to £400 (instead of £598).

Sorry, but I am not going to tell you how I managed this, but suffice it to say there were a number of emails between me and the nice people at RedHat, and much discussion with my wife, who paid for the exam as a joint birthday/xmas present. Yes, I know I am a geek!

So with 54 days remaining I am using the excellent RHCE Red Hat Certified Engineer Linux Study Guide (Exam RH302) (Certification Press)Michael Jang book (soon to switch to the Red Hat® Certified Technician & Engineer (RHCT and RHCE) Training Guide and Administrator’s ReferenceAsher Ghori book when I unwrap it at the weekend), several VMWare Server guest RedHat builds (one server for the NFS install, and several to break and build). The only shame about the Ghori book is that there is no pdf to download anywhere (good for him though, and it’s nice to have the physical book to read, instead of staring at a computer screen).

I would also recommend the Foundations of CentOS Linux: Enterprise Linux On the Cheap (Books for Professionals by Professionals)CentOS book (and getting the discs if you cant get hold of the RedHat ones), its a very well written book, and considering it covers such a wide number of topics, it’s surprisingly indepth!

Another invaluable resource is the Deployment guide freely available on the RedHat site.

But it’s proper practice that’s the key with this exam. It’s a true test of ability, so practice is imperitive.

So apart from living and breathing RedHat, I have had more articles published, one for the ITJobBoard on Cross Examination, and another for RedmondMag on ActiveBatch 7. I am quite liking this writing lark.

Merry xmas all.

I still think that the RHCE exam is more expensive than it should be.

In terms of OS certifications, with the major OS’s being Microsoft and Linux, the RHCE exam (seen by many to be the best), is far more costly than other exams.

The LPI exams only cost $580 for all three exams, and you can do the entire MCSE track for $875, which is 7 exams).

Even with the reduction in the length of the exam for the RHCE (see the earlier post), the price remains at a whopping $799.

Compare this with the Cisco exams, and you can complete the CCNP and only shell out $750, and that’s only if you need to pass the CCNA first. If you have your CCNA, then its only $500 for the four exams.

Here’s a nice chart showing the costings:

The CCIE will always remain the most expensive, it comprises a written exam, and then a grueling 8 hour lab exam.

So my request to RedHat is that they reduce the price of the RHCE exam to bring it inline with other exams. $799 for one exam sucks.

This month RedHat have changed the format of their exams.

The RHCE previously consisted of a 2.5 hour exam followed by a 3 hour exam, now it is just a 3.5 hour exam.
Similarly the RHCT exam was a 1 hour exam followed by a 2 hour exam, and is now just a 2 hour exam.

The reasoning behind this is, according to RedHat: “Our analysis of thousands of exam results found that more time was allocated in the first section than was needed for candidates who could historically pass the second section. Allocating 2.5 hours in the first section was only beneficial to individuals who, we found, were unable to pass the second section“.

They follow this with: “Taking a certification exam is like a visit to the doctor: it should take as long as is necessary to make an accurate diagnosis, but should not take any longer than necessary. A shorter exam makes better use of candidates’ time“.

They should also add that charging the same ($799) for the RHCE exam, is also like going to the doctor, no matter what the problem is, you’re going to get fingered somewhere uncomfortable.

To put it in perspective the LPI exams are $160 each for levels one and two, and $260 for level 3, a total of $580. Completing the full MCSE track which is seven exams is $875.

A quick search on Jobserve (looking at UK jobs) for permanent roles using RHCE as the keyword results in 14 hits, whereas using MCSE as the keyword results in 217 hits.

The RedHat exam is a very good hands-on exam, one I actually enjoyed taking, but I failed it and it was on the company’s dime, at $799 I wouldn’t consider paying for this myself though, and I think a lot of people feel the same.

Read more on RedHat’s new exam format here